Bensalem Himmich - The Theocrat

At the beginning of this period his devotees used to gather periodically to assess their imam’s meditations that they had collected. They would compare notes and share the task of editing them and filling in gaps. Then they would turn them into a complete text that both satisfied their expectations and tired their minds and bodies. This new compilation would then be added to the other secret texts for which a highly esoteric kind of interpretation was used, that being a level to which only the initiated and those drawn into the cadre of the “discerning” were privy.

Most of these texts have not survived and are now lost, but one has survived. It is divided into sections. Devotees have confirmed that it does consist of al-Hakim’s sayings; the only role they played was to arrange the materials and provide titles. Among its contents are the following passages:

2. I Am the Clear Smoke

History will comprehend me.

In the name of rule by the authority of God and of the Arabic language I am inclined to the ultimate and to the clash of opposites. Whoever understands me is aware that my era will inevitably be worthy of note. But for that, it would be like a mere grain of mustard-seed. With the gifts and powers given to me I have decided that it will be memorable, wracked by unforeseen events and mighty longings. When it comes to an end, it will leave behind shards of resolve and erupting volcanoes.

History only opens its ears and tomes to the most significant of events and circumstances, to those things that have the power to confound it and destroy its parameters.

History only keeps records of those who impress it and resist its twists and turns by invoking opposites. It is by nature corrupt, loving those who rupture its tedious practices and demolish its own beds.

That is why I can promise you that history will comprehend me!

The Station of “Were I”

Were I to utter anything other than what the Arab night and destiny itself utter, I would be like that philosopher armed with proverbs, the one who said: how far apart are letter and fate. So down with destiny, and may the letter show itself! How outrageous!

Concerning the Defeat of Peace

This enveloping nature is the mother of us all. It seems to me like some old debauched witch proclaiming funereal chants, distributing ashes of endings in crystal-shaped containers, gleaming and deadly; it traces the slope of flutters and sighs toward silence, the slope of all elements toward corrosion and oblivion.

As you chew over events and calamities, you should strive to collect tidings of love, joy, and safety. Should you succeed, those tidings will be like extra prayers; they and additional devotions will be one and the same.

Have you not seen that the founding essence only tells of natural disasters, blood baths, and tranquility marred by caution!

Are you not convinced that peace in history only recounts its defeats and the crushing of rose and dove!

Beware of Whiteness

Love and brotherhood are qualities of the people of paradise.

Paradise is a promise, with no part of this despicable existence.

In order to survive our lower world is based on enmity and conflict.

That was the sign of the beginning, one enmeshed in an ever recurring return.

By the name of Fatima the Radiant, you need enemies, just as they need you.

Your enemies are the measure of your power. When they appear, confront them; if they disappear or go into hiding, search them out!

Record this saying in my name: a dictum that conforms with the laws of life states that either the people will vanquish its enemies, or else it will itself be overcome and subdued.

Beware, beware! Don’t let yourselves be deceived by the white or slide apathetically toward peace and neutrality. Do that, and you will be lost.

Know for certain that war has many aspects and abodes; they may come all at once or in separate bursts. War may be based on the sword or the pen, or around chattels and values.

Know for certain that every peace is a truce between two wars, and that every truce provides an opportunity to recover the breaths of resolve and to reinforce military supplies and assault troops.

I, al-Hakim bi-Amr Illah have determined that the victory of the Fatimid people will be total, indubitable, and irrevocable. The words of the poet will indeed come to pass:

Once we had pounded and overwhelmed them,

We left them there as fodder for vultures and birds of prey.

Concerning the Nature of Politics and Tyranny

Historians full of homiletic wisdom and necrophiliacs will say that I, al-Hakim bi-Amr Illah, crushed the faithful using both tyranny and despair; that I was bloodthirsty; that I was the ultimate inquisition, a total blight….

If these pseudo-scholars really knew the essence of history — the way it is crafted by the power of the sword and the sheer quantity of misery and suffering, then they would understand me and would come to realize that tyranny is an intrinsic feature of politics, Beyond that, features of tyranny include wariness, caution, and a resort to preventive violence. It was a prescient sage who declared that anyone who fails to defend his turf by force of arms will be removed; a ruler who does not control his people will be the one who is ruled!

The Other Side of Politics

1.

Death is the other side of politics.

Contact with politics brings risks.

Anyone who undertakes such risks will be safe for a while, or else will lose his soul in the clash between venture and conflict.

This is why, in the exercise of power, I am inclined to dispense with everything that is contrary and competitive!

2.

Is it because Our Lord has given me power so young that you watch me so closely?

No, I shall leave no escape for that eunuch, Burjuwan the Slav, who is in charge of my administration. He will not do to me what Kafur did to the children of his master, al-Ikhshid. He came to greet me in his stinking shoes, lorded it over me, and tried to ignore me. Now tell him that the boy he nicknamed the ward-gecko has now turned into a full-size dragon, one that can wrap its tail around disloyal necks and throttle them to death.

Husayn ibn ‘Ammar, the secretary of my administration, has shown me a satisfactory level of solidarity and loyalty. Toward him and all those who are after my blood I shall display the full abundance of my own duplicity and instant revenge.

3.

I have demolished the buttresses and horizons of all those who have placed themselves above me; at my hands they have been totally shattered. With great determination I have recovered my throne. I have traveled through the tunnels of my reign and my intrigues in quest of tremors and shivering. I have established my shadow wherever I went and created within my homeland a history for my swords. How happy I am at what clings to me: stories that delight me so about the volcano of my followers; a voice with prophetic impact; a happy omen.

It is fine for me to devote myself to exploration and physiognomy; it is fine to love and harass; fine too is every rift, every pass, every inundation.

I sweep things away, I dominate, then I return to the serenity of the desert that forewarns of the storm to come; I go back to the sand preface that forewarns of the storm to come.

Ribbons of Values

You ask me about the reasoning behind my penchant for destroying monuments and values. My response (take it away and reflect on it) is: any-one who does not destroy does not know the meaning of building; anyone who does not practice evil cannot do good.

The person who can only look at something from one aspect is short-sighted and unperceptive. He remains stuck in a single dimension, extolling monotony and fading into oblivion along with it.